Sweet surprise: Lantana’s Hatcher mango fruit stand reopens Friday

You won’t need a secret handshake to get Hatcher mangoes this year. Hatcher Mango Hill, the 130-tree mango grove in Lantana that grows the enormous, delicious, only-in-Palm-Beach-County mangoes, will reopen its fruit stand Friday for the first time since 2005. In the past, because of the four hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 that damaged much of the grove, the supply was limited, and people had to put their names on an email list to be alerted when their order of mangoes was ready.

And so, an underground mango-lovers cult was formed around these mangoes, which the late John Hatcher bred in the 1940s by crossing several varieties of mangoes at his nursery on Hypoluxo road, one block west of I-95. His widow, Marilynn, still runs the grove with her family. “We’ve been waiting for the trees to regrow their limbs so we could get enough mangoes to reopen the fruit stand,” Marilynn Hatcher said. “But it’s still not like it was yet.” Mango aficionados, who drive to the Lantana farm in summer from all over the state or have them shipped, can still put their names on an email list to reserve their mangoes. Or they can drive by the fruit stand, which will be open Monday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 2-5 p.m. — or until the mangoes run out for the day. The grove will sell its Haden and Zill varieties of mangoes, which come into season first, through June. The Hatcher mangoes won’t be available until July, according the grove’s website. Access to these rare mangoes may have gotten easier. But the message is still the same: Get there early. “I have a feeling we’ll sell out on some days before 5 o’clock,” Hatcher said.